School experiment

Quick, off the top of your heads, mouse breeders, what is the absolute SMALLEST cage you'd keep 10 adult mice in? 10 gallon, 20 gallon, etc? It's for a school project, we need to design an experiment just not actually experiment so no mice will be harmed if you answer.

20g would be my minimum. A 10g is just too small. The fact that tanks are horrible for housing rodents in the first place (I'm guilty of using them, but I'm gradually switching to tubs), makes using smaller tanks a bad idea. A ten gallon just would not give you the kind of ventilation you'd need for ten mice. I keep no more than five adult mice in a ten gallon. That is even pushing it for me. I keep four adults per 10g on a normal day.

What kind of experiment are you running?

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

20g would be my minimum. A 10g is just too small. The fact that tanks are horrible for housing rodents in the first place (I'm guilty of using them, but I'm gradually switching to tubs), makes using smaller tanks a bad idea. A ten gallon just would not give you the kind of ventilation you'd need for ten mice. I keep no more than five adult mice in a ten gallon. That is even pushing it for me. I keep four adults per 10g on a normal day.

What kind of experiment are you running?

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She wants us to design an experiment testing an old wive's tale. Our group's wive's tale: Drinking cold water during a meal will give you cancer.

So how are you going to make mice drink cold water WHILE they eat? You could always put ice in their water bottle, but this melts over time and you can't really make mice drink when you want them to.

If the bottle was available for a few minutes at a time a few times a day, they would drink when it was offered. Feed them first and make sure they're thirsty and full at the same time.

How will you make sure they don't have cancer before you start your experiment?

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Originally Posted by wilomn

If the bottle was available for a few minutes at a time a few times a day, they would drink when it was offered. Feed them first and make sure they're thirsty and full at the same time.

How will you make sure they don't have cancer before you start your experiment?

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Umm, everyone needs to read what I originally wrote: We're not actually testing the experiment, just coming up with how we would do it.

Yeah, we were considering putting spices in their food to make them drink..?

I would avoid spices to make them drink. So you are not actually getting mice and testing out the theory but instead just writing up how you would do it?

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

I would avoid spices to make them drink. So you are not actually getting mice and testing out the theory but instead just writing up how you would do it?

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Yup. ;)